One day, in the winter of 1822, Thomas Johnson, a colored man, living
with Daniel Gibbons, went out early in the morning, to set traps for
muskrats. While he was gone, a slave-holder came to the house and
inquired for his slave. Daniel Gibbons said: "There is no slave here of
that name." The man replied: "I know he is here. The man we're after, is
a miserable, worthless, thieving scoundrel." "Oh! very well, then," said
the good Quaker, "if that's the kind of man thee's after, then I know he
is not here. We have a colored man here, but he is not that kind of a
man." The slaveholder waited awhile, the man not making his appearance,
then said: "Well, now, Mr. Gibbons, when you see that man next, tell him
that we were here, and if he will come home, we will take good care of
him, and be kind to him." "Very well," said Daniel, "I will tell him
what thee says, but say to him at the same time, that he is a very great
fool, if he does as thee requests." The colored man sought, having
caught sight of the slaveholders, and knowing who they were, went off
that night, under Daniel Gibbons' directions, and was never seen by his
master again. Afterward, Daniel and his nephew, William Gibbons, went
with this man to Adams county. With his master came the master of Mary,
a girl with straight hair, and nearly white, who lived with Daniel
Gibbons and his wife. Poor Mary was unfortunate. Her master caught her,
and took her back with him into Slavery. She and a little girl, who was
taken away about the year 1830, were the only ones ever taken back from
the house of Daniel Gibbons.
Between the time of his marriage, when he began to keep a depot on the
Underground Rail Road, and the year 1824, he passed more than one
hundred slaves through to Canada, and between the latter time and his
death, eight hundred more, making, in all nine hundred aided by him. He
was ever willing to sacrifice his own personal comfort and convenience,
in order to assist fugitives. In 1833, when on his way to the West, in a
carriage, with his friend, Thomas Peart, also a most faithful friend of
the colored man and interested in Underground Rail Road affairs, he
found a fugitive slave, a woman, in Adams county, who was in immediate
danger. He stopped his journey, and sent his horse and wagon back to his
own home with the woman, that being the only safe way of getting her
off. This was but a sample of his self-denial, in the cause of human
freedom.
His want of ability to guide in person runaway slaves, or to travel with
them, prevented him from taking active part in the wonderful adventures
and hair-breadth escapes which his brain and tact rendered possible and
successful. It is believed that no slave was ever recaptured that
followed his directions. Sometimes the abolitionists were much annoyed
by impostors, who pretended to be runaways, in order to discover their
plans, and betray them to the slave-holders. Daniel Gibbons was
possessed of much acuteness in detecting these people, but having
detected them, he never treated them harshly or unkindly.
Almost from infancy, he was distinguished for the gravity of his
deportment, and his utter heedlessness of small things. The writer has
heard men preach the doctrine of the trifling value of the things of a
present time, and of the tremendous importance of those of a
never-ending eternity, but Daniel Gibbons is the only person she ever
knew, who lived that doctrine. He believed in plainness of apparel as
taught by Friends, not as a form or a rule of society, but as a
principle; often quoting from some one who said that "the adornment of a
vain and foolish world, would feed a starving one." He opposed
extravagant fashions and all luxury of habit and life, as calculated to
produce effeminacy and degrading sensuality, and as a bestowal of
idolatrous attention upon that body which he would often say "was here
but for a short time."
Looking only upon that as religion, which made men love each other and
do good to each other in this world, he was little of a stickler for
points of belief, and even when he did look into theological matters or
denounce a man's religious opinions, it was generally because they were
calculated to darken the mind and be entertained as a substitute for
good works. Pursuing the even tenor of his way, he could as easily lead
the flying fugitive slave by night out of the way of his powerful
master, as one differently constituted could bestow his wealth upon the
most popular charity in the land.
His faith was of the simplest kind--the Parable of the prodigal son,
contains his creed. Discarding what are commonly called "plans of
salvation," he believed in the light "which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world," and that if people would follow this light, they
would thus seek "the kingdom of Heaven and its righteousness and all
other things needful would be added thereunto." He was a devoted member
of the Society of Friends, in which he held the position of elder,
during the last twenty-five years of his life. That peculiar doctrine of
the Society, which repudiates systematic divinity and with it a paid
ministry, he held in special reverence, finding confirmation of its
truth in the general advocacy of Slavery, by the popular clergy of his
day.
When he was quite advanced in years, and the Anti-slavery agitation grew
warm, he was solicited to join an anti-slavery society, but on hearing
the constitution read, and finding that it repudiated all use of
physical force on the part of the oppressed in gaining their liberty, he
said that he could not assent to that--that he had long been engaged in
getting off slaves, and that he had always advised them to use force,
although remonstrating against going to the extent of taking life, and
that now he could not recede from that position, and he did not see how
they could always be got off without the use of some force.
His faith in an overruling Providence was complete. He believed, even in
the darkest days of freedom in our land, in the ultimate extinction of
Slavery, and at times, although advanced in years, thought he would live
to witness that glorious consummation. It is only in a man's own family
and by his wife and children, that he is really known, and it is by
those who best knew, and indeed, who only knew this good man, that his
biographer is most anxious that he should be judged. As a parent, he was
not excessively indulgent, as a husband, one more nearly a model is
rarely found. But his kindness in domestic life, his love for his wife,
his son and his grandchildren, and their reciprocal love and affection
for him, no words can express.
It was in his father's household in his youth and in his own household
in his mature years, that was fostered that wealth of love and
affection, which, extending and widening, took in the whole race, and
made him the friend of the oppressed everywhere, and especially of those
whom it was a dangerous and unpopular task to befriend.
The tenderness and thoughtfulness of his disposition are well shown in
the following incident: Upon one occasion, his son received a kick from
a horse, which he was about to mount at the door. When he had recovered
from the shock, and it was found that he was not seriously injured, the
father still continued to look serious, and did not cease to shed tears.
On being asked why he grieved, his answer was: "I was just thinking how
it would have been with thee, had that stroke proved fatal." Such
thoughts were at once the notes of his own preparation and a warning to
others to be also ready.
A life consistent with his views, was a life of humility and universal
benevolence, and such was his. It was a life, as it were in Heaven,
while yet on earth, for it soared above and beyond the corrupt and
slavish influences of earthly passions.
His interest in temperance never failed him. On his death-bed he would
call persons to him, who needed such advice, and admonish them on the
subject of using strong drinks, and his last expression of interest in
any humanitarian movement, was an avowal of his belief in the great good
to arise from a prohibitory liquor law.
To a friend, who entered his sick room, a few days before his death, he
said: "Well, E., thee is preparing to go to the West." The friend
replied: "Yes, and Daniel, I suppose thee is preparing to go to
eternity." There was an affirmative reply, and E. inquired, "How does
thee find it?" Daniel said: "I don't find much to do, I find that I have
not got a hard master to deal with. Some few things which I have done, I
find not entirely right." He quitted the earthly service of the Master,
on the 17th day of the eighth month, 1852.
A young physician, son of one of his old friends, after attending his
funeral, wrote to a friend, as follows: "To quote the words of Webster,
'We turned and paused, and joined our voices with the voices of the air,
and bade him hail! and farewell!' Farewell, kind and brave old man! The
voices of the oppressed whom thou hast redeemed, welcome thee to the
Eternal City."